The Huskers had Oregon right where they wanted them for three quarters Saturday night into Sunday morning. Then the Ducks found another gear.
Nebraska’s defense held up long enough to keep the game tight, but Oregon scored the final 11 points and sent the Huskers home with a second straight loss to a preseason Top 10 opponent. The shift came in the fourth quarter, when the Duck offense finally took control and Nebraska had no answer.
The matchup carried a little extra intrigue because of Oregon’s quarterback situation. Dante Moore, the Ducks’ starter, was unavailable after taking a vicious hit against USC a couple of weeks earlier, and it could be a while before he’s cleared. That opened the door for some unusual quarterback decisions, including the week before Nebraska arrived.
Oregon’s game against UCLA ended up telling part of the story. With Moore out, former Nebraska starter Dylan Raiola got the nod for the Ducks.
He went 6/19 for 43 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions before being benched in favor of former walk-on Brock Thomas. Thomas finished 11/15 for 73% with one touchdown and no interceptions and nearly pulled Oregon back in that game, which UCLA won 17-15.
The Bruins are ranked No. 9 in this week’s AP poll.
That made Saturday night’s question pretty obvious: would Raiola get a shot against his former teammates? At first, it didn’t look that way.
Thomas started again and spent most of the night dealing with the Husker Blackshirts. But with Oregon trailing 14-6 in the final period, Raiola came off the bench and changed the game.
He led two long scoring drives that produced 11 straight points for the Ducks. The last one ended with a touchdown and a successful double point try with 28 seconds left, giving Oregon its first lead of the game and leaving Nebraska stunned.
On a sports talk show in Omaha this week, one critic tore into Dan Lanning for starting Thomas instead of Raiola against Nebraska. The argument was that the Oregon coach had made a foolish call. But the numbers from the UCLA game make the decision harder to dismiss.
Raiola had been shaky against the Bruins, and Thomas had given Oregon a spark. So when Nebraska came to town, Lanning went with the hot hand. Against a Nebraska defense that was making life miserable for Oregon all night, Thomas wasn’t spectacular, but the Ducks also managed only one touchdown and 17 points total.
That leaves the other obvious question: why didn’t Lanning turn back to Raiola sooner? Maybe the answer was simple.
Nebraska’s defense was wearing down late, and Oregon may have wanted to keep its five-star quarterback away from the kind of punishment the Blackshirts had been delivering all game. Given what happened the week before, maybe Lanning’s decision wasn’t nearly as questionable as it first looked.
In Other News...
Oregon Is In Position For A Big Hawaiian QB Recruiting Win
Oregon has put itself in the mix for one of the more intriguing young quarterbacks on the West Coast, as Hunter Fujikawa trimmed his early college list to six schools and included the Ducks among them. The 2028 recruit from Mililani High School in Hawaii is rated by 247Sports as the No. 17 quarterback and No. 237 overall player in his class, a sign that this is a name worth tracking closely as his recruitment develops.
Fujikawa is still weighing possible visits to Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, Stanford and Ole Miss, so there is a long way to go before anything settles down. Even so, the Ducks have a potential edge in the form of future teammate Toa Satele, the linebacker already committed to Oregon, and that connection could matter as the process starts to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Could Get Another Shot At A Huge Former Recruiting Miss
Marylands decision to move on from Mike Locksley after a 2-5 start has already rippled beyond College Park, and it could create one more interesting portal storyline for Oregon to monitor. Locksley went 39-54 across his time with the Terrapins, including his interim stint in 2015, and with a coaching change now in place, the Ducks are one of the programs that may be watching closely to see what comes next.
The name to keep an eye on is Zion Elee, the freshman edge rusher and former top recruit who could become available if he decides a fresh start is best. For Oregon, it would be a familiar kind of reminder that recruiting battles do not always end on signing day, and even a miss can come back around if the transfer market opens the door. [Read more 🡒]
Dante Moores Return Could Decide How NFL Teams View Him
Dante Moores absence has become one of the quieter but more consequential storylines around Oregon, especially with NFL evaluators already watching him closely. The Ducks quarterback has missed two games after sustaining a concussion against USC, and with no firm timeline for his return, the focus around him has shifted from weekly production to the bigger question of how much more he can show before draft season starts to take shape.
Scouts still view Moore as a legitimate prospect, and the early buzz around the 2027 NFL Draft has placed him anywhere from the first round to early Day 2. But the concern is obvious: injuries and limited playing time can make it harder to separate talent from projection, even for a quarterback teammates describe as a leader away from the field. How he responds when he gets back on the field may matter as much as the next box score. [Read more 🡒]